"Transcribing the vivid
details of the account engraved into the fabric of her memory, I am transfixed
by all that she’s held onto for 65 years. From paper to pulse, I write the
story buried deep in her consciousness to affirm her truth. Without her, it never
would be written at all.

I study the lines on my
grandmother’s face knowing behind every one there is a timeless story of unmitigated
pain, survival and hope. This story, where the continued dispossession,
suffering and oppression of the Palestinian people began, is one that refuses
to be silenced or forgotten. It is the story of Deir
Yassin.

Remember the date: Friday,
9 April 1948, a day of infamy in Palestinian history. My grandmother was nine
years old at the time of the Deir Yassin massacre and every day since she has
lived with a steadfast commitment to never forget.

Premonition

Thursday, 8 April, ended
like any other in the small, quiet village. My grandmother and her younger sister
returned home from school to complete their composition assignment entitled Asri’
(meaning “to hurry” in Arabic). She recounts that detail animatedly. Like other
children their age, she wanted to complete the assignment in order to enjoy the
next day off.

The excitement, however,
was short-lived. I can’t help but think of the irony in the assignment’s title.
Asri’ — it’s almost as though it were a premonition of sorts.

The following day, entire
families ran hurriedly in sheer terror, fleeing the only homes they had ever
known to escape a bloodbath. By dawn on that Friday morning, life as they had
known it would never be the same again. Deir Yassin would never be the same
again.

Fathers, grandfathers,
brothers and sons were lined up against a wall and sprayed with bullets, execution
style. Beloved teachers were savagely mutilated with knives. Mothers and
sisters were taken hostage and those who survived returned to find pools of
blood filling the streets of the village and children stripped of their
childhoods overnight.

The walls of homes, which
once stood witness to warmth, laughter and joy, were splattered with the blood
and imprints of traumatic memories. My grandmother lost 37 members of her
family that day. These are not stories you will read about in most history
books.

Bitter symbol

The Deir Yassin massacre
was not the largest-scale massacre, nor was it the most gruesome. The
atrocities committed, the scale of violence and the complexity of the methods
and insidious weaponry used by Israel against civilians in the recent decade
have been far more sadistic and pernicious. But Deir Yassin marks one of the
most critical turning points in Palestinian history.

The author's great-uncle, Muhammad Radwan, outside of the family home in Deir Yassin

A bitter symbol carved in
the fiber of the Palestinian being and narrative, it resonates sharply as the
event that catalyzed our ongoing Nakba
(catastrophe), marked by the forced exile of 750,000 Palestinians from their
homes, creating the largest refugee
population worldwide with more than half living in the diaspora.

Deir
Yassin is a caustic reminder of the ongoing suffering, struggle and systematic
genocide of the Palestinian people, 65 years and counting. When the village was
terrorized into fleeing, tumultuous shockwaves of terror ran through Palestine,
laying the blueprint for the architecture of today’s apartheid
Israel.

Sacred Ground
I
have been fortunate enough to see Deir Yassin and step foot on its sacred
ground. Deir Yassin remains a permanently cemented and rigorous reminder of the
spirit that has never permitted defeat. Despite the illegal settlements, pillaging, plundering and
human suffering that took place, my grandmother’s home stands with resolve just
as she does today...."

Stories from Israel and Palestine...

from peacemakers on the ground, who are working to end the injustice of Israel’s occupation and bring peace to their land. Stories to help Americans, who, like me, have not understood what is really happening—in the words of one Jewish grandmother I met, "for my children and grandchildren."

A Lenten Geography, Meditations for Lent, 2014

As we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, join me in listening to the texts for the Sundays in Lent through the stories of the "living stones"—the Christians, Jews and Muslims living in the ancient land of Palestine who are working to bring the good news of peace to that land today. The lessons are from the Revised Common Lectionary.

About Me

When I first traveled to Israel and Palestine in June, 2005, with Pastor Paul Rowold, I met Israelis and Palestinians and heard their stories about how difficult their lives have become under Israel's occupation and I witnessed all the ways they are bringing hope to their communities.
When I asked what I could to, they told me "Tell our stories." They were convinced that if the American people knew what was happening to them, their lives would be different.
I returned to visit with Israeli and Palestinian peace groups in June, 2008, and I have been the co-leader for two pilgrimage groups to the Holy Land in 2008 and 2009. In May-June 2010, I traveled with a Compassionate Listening delegation. Again, the Palestinians and the Jewish Israelis I met asked me to tell their stories of despair and hope—and about their work to build their communities and create a future of hope for their children. I have made two more trips—in 2011 and again this past fall,2013, with Interfaith Peace-builders. In the picture above, I'm protesting the occupation of Palestine by standing with the Women in Black at one of Jerusalem's busiest intersections in June, 2008.